The Twin Pine Trees: A Gravity Falls Fanfiction
by dragonball4000
Summary: "Why do you need these trees? What are you planning, Bill?" Dipper exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at him. Bill grinned and stood still, leaning forward on his cane. "To tell you a story, of course. Take a seat Dipper; this is going to be long." "I think I'd prefer to stand." "Ok, fine, whatever. But if you pass out I'm not catching you." Bill said sighing. "Why would I fall
1. Let Me Tell You a Tale

It was a day like any other. Mystery twins Dipper and Mabel Pines were just getting up and about to eat breakfast. Dipper was deciphering something in the mysterious red journal marked with a six-fingered hand with a three on it. Mabel was trying to pick out all the nasty parts of her cereal, so only the marshmallows were left. She threw everything non-marshmallow to waddles, who happily ate them.  
>"Gah! Why can't they just make a cereal without all this stuff in it?" Mabel said. Dipper, too preoccupied with the journal, just nodded and said "Mhm."<br>"Dipper, c'mon, stop looking in that old journal and help me pick all this out!" She yelled at her twin. He lifted his head up from his book and looked at her.  
>"Mabel, I'm trying to-" He paused and glanced at the book. "Wait a second… Mabel, that's it! I just have to take out everything that doesn't make sense... I got it!" Dipper jumped up from the table and ran upstairs.<br>"Dipper, what are you talking about?" Mabel yelled, looking around the corner and up the stairs. She ran up them after her brother. He was in their room, dressed out of his pajamas, and tying his shoes.  
>"Mabel, get ready! I have to go get Wendy and Soos." He ran back down the stairs to get them. Mabel put on a white sweater with a blue pine tree on it, the same symbol that was on Dipper's hat. She didn't really want to wear it, but all her other sweaters were dirty or missing and she didn't have the time to look for them. She put a head band on, slipped on her black flats and ran after her brother.<br>"This is probably something to do with the stupid journal again…" She thought to herself.  
>When Mabel got outside, Dipper had already gotten Soos and Wendy. They were all sitting in the golf cart, Dipper at the wheel and Soos and Wendy at the back.<br>"Mabel, get in! We have to go right now!" Dipper said sounding frantic. Mabel hopped in beside her brother. Dipper slammed his foot on the pedal and drove into the forest.  
>"Hey, little dudes, where are we going?" Soos asked.<br>"Yea, I was wondering the same thing." Wendy added. Dipper handed the journal to them opened to a page with a drawing of two massive trees standing side by side on it. They both had one large limbs sticking out near their trunk that spiked out and connected to one another by a wooden circle. Thousands upon thousands of branches jutted out from the circle, and even more were hacked off.  
>"The twin pine trees. Said to exist in the heart of the forest, these two trees are said to tell a prophecy of two twins, a boy and a girl, who are children of omniscience itself. Both were born with the ability to see and be seen by the wonders of the forest, something extremely rare among mortal children. The boy was also granted the ability to decipher almost any code and know almost anything, while the girl was able to use magic and bend time to her will. Both are said to be immortal, but I cannot confirm whether or not this is all true. All I know is that the trees do exist, and do seem to be magically entwined to all of Gravity Falls. There seems to be some sort of barrier around the tree that only allows people it chooses to pass through, while anything else that attempts to pass it is viciously stabbed by the trees surrounding it. I don't plan on risking an attempt to pass it myself, and I urge you to not risk it either." Mabel read aloud.<br>"Dipper… this doesn't seem like a good idea. Maybe we should just,"  
>"No! We have to go! I need to know… I have to know!" Dipper interrupted. He had a determined look on his face as he drove the golf cart.<br>"But why do Wendy and I have to come with?" Soos asked. He still wasn't sure what was going on, but he had a feeling that he shouldn't go wherever Dipper was taking him.  
>"So I won't seem crazy when I come back and tell everyone what happened."<br>They had been driving for about half an hour now. Everyone was getting restless and kept asking how much farther it would be. Every time, Dipper would just say 'we're almost there.' Out of the blue, a chilly wind blew at them.  
>"Did you guys feel that?" Wendy asked.<br>"Yea, dude. It was super-creepy." Soos agreed. Mabel turned around with a puzzled look on her face.  
>"What are you talking about? I didn't feel anything. Dipper, did you?" Mabel said. Dipper grinned and shook his head.<br>"That means we're close! Hang on, guys." Dipper put the pedal all the way down, making the cart swerve. A clearing came into view. It seemed to be omitting some sort of blue light. The cart suddenly stopped, and Mabel almost flew out the front.  
>"Dipper, what the heck?!" she screamed. But Dipper wasn't listening. He had already gotten out of the golf cart and ran towards two extremely tall and slender trees. They looked exactly like the ones in the journal, entwined branches and all. Two profile views of children were engraved into their bark. One child had short hair, the others was long. The circle where the two largest branches had a very simplistic eye engraved into it, like some sort of weird Cyclops thing.<br>"Guys, this is it!" Dipper exclaimed, smiling widely. He and his twin sister gaped at the object with much curiosity, while Soos and Wendy stood still. The tree was frightening to them. Very frightening.  
>Dipper slowly walked towards the blue force field, hand stuck out. His eyes were the size of platters.<br>"Dipper, no!" Mabel yelled to her brother, running to pull him away. But it was too late. Dipper was suddenly pulled through and landed on the other side.  
>"Dipper!" Mabel yelled. She jumped after him, brown hair flying behind her, but she never made it. Dipper turned his head back just in time to see his sister be impaled by thousands of branches all through her body, through her legs, arms, head, and torso. The only thing that seemed to be left intact was her left eye. Blood flowed down her and onto the forest grass, and turned her white sweater a sickly red.<br>"Mabel!" Dipper yelled. He ran towards the force field and tried to jump through, but only collided with it and fell backwards. He got back up and started to bang on it and kept yelling his sister's name.  
>"Mabel! Mabel! No no no, Mabel!" Dipper tilted his head down, crying. He didn't want the others to see him like this. He quickly glanced over at Soos and Wendy, just to see where they were. Both seemed to be stopped mid-gasp. Dipper lifted his head up to get a better look. Sure enough, they weren't moving at all. It didn't even look like they were breathing. Now that he looked, not even the trees were shaking in the wind like usual. High above the clearing, two birds were completely still. Now Dipper knew something was wrong.<br>"Did… time stop?" He whispered to himself. "But… that's impossible…"  
>"It's funny how dumb you are."<br>Dipper jerked his head up. He knew that voice, that expression…  
>"Bill!" He yelled, turning around. But this couldn't be Bill, could it? Before him was a very tall man with blonde hair, a yellow suit with long coattails, black shoes, tie, top hat, and cane, and an eye patch over his right eye. Dipper stood there, not sure whether to start yelling accusations at him or ask who he was.<br>"Dipper. Glad you could show up." Bill said. "Yes, I am Bill, and yes, I did stop time."  
>"Bill, why are you doing this?" Dipper asked. Bill walked over to where Dipper dropped the '3' journal and picked it up. He flipped to the page that had the twin pine trees on it and showed it to Dipper.<br>"I'm sure you've seen this before. The twin pine trees, said to tell a sort of prophecy." He tossed the book back at Dipper, who caught it and tucked it back under his arm.  
>"As you probably didn't notice, since, you know, you're pretty dumb, that page wasn't always in the journal. One night, while you were sleeping, I added it to your book." Bill said, pacing back and forth on his long, elegant legs. His cane hit the ground with a dull thud with every step.<br>"But that doesn't make any sense. Why would you-"  
>"Because I needed to talk to you, and I knew that you wouldn't meet me if I just asked you. I knew if you saw such a thing in the journal you would just have to explore it, with your extreme curiosity and all. These trees were always here, it's just that the man who wrote those journals never wrote about them. Quite the coincidence that it was this mystery he didn't write about. They're just the thing I need." Bill explained. Dipper was extremely confused at this point.<br>"Why do you need these trees? What are you planning, Bill?" Dipper exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at him. Bill grinned and stood still, leaning forward on his cane.  
>"To tell you a story, of course. Take a seat Dipper; this is going to be long."<br>"I think I'd prefer to stand."  
>"Ok, fine, whatever. But if you pass out I'm not catching you." Bill said sighing.<br>"Why would I fall?"  
>"You'll see in a moment." Bill lifted up both legs and sat floating above the ground and cleared his throat.<br>"Ok, I guess I should start at the beginning of my story. I was never really born, just suddenly 'poof!' I took form in this galaxy. I had no idea what I was doing, or at least until I looked around. Behind me was a massive blue and green ball you know as Earth. It was back when nothing but bacteria and plants lived. It was boring as heck for the first billions or however-long-it-was years. I had nothing to do but sit around and stare at little squirmy things all day. Once they started to evolve and get bigger, I finally was able to have a little fun. Did you know that there used to be a type of duck with a snout like a dog and fins? Those little annoying pests kept biting me when I swam, so I got rid of them all. Anyways, I've seen everything since then happen on Earth, blah blah blah. I taught man how to survive and I gave them knowledge. I made humans the dominant race. I tried to rule over them, but they never would listen and I ended up killing them. I tried to naturally have children, but nothing any mortal woman could conceive survived past age four. They were all a little different, too. One grew into an elder and died in two years, another had a head the size of a normal baby's whole body and a body the size of a hand. So I stopped trying that. I attempted to build them from plants, but they all burnt up. For thousands of years I did nothing but test and research how to create a perfect human. Then it hit me! What if I transferred my power into two identical humans? It was perfect! So I set to work sculpting them out. Naturally it had to be a boy and a girl. It wasn't till the 19th century that I finally finished making their bodies. I'd gone through thousands of prototypes, but these two were perfect. They were my ultimate creation. But the hardest part was still to come. I had to split one very young soul in half so it would be just right. Many explosions happened there. See, splitting a soul is like splitting an atom, but ten times worse and you have a pretty good chance of causing some break in the space time continuum. Luckily I avoided that and by the 21st century, they were completely finished. I created 'parents' for them. They would raise them until they were old enough to be able to handle my magic, when they would return to the place of their creation and fulfill their destiny."  
>Dipper was amazed. Bill was so powerful he could mess with life and create it himself?<br>"Why exactly did you tell me this?" Dipper nervously asked. He wasn't sure what to expect. Was he supposed to go and find these two people and bring them to Bill?

"Because, Dipper."

"Those two children are none other than you and your sister."


	2. Welcome, my Children

Dipper took a step back and fell to his knees.

"No... no, I'm not your son... I'm not... I'm the good guy! Mabel and I, we're the good guys! Someone... no, something, like YOU, is not our dad!" He said through heavy breathing. Remembering the awful his sister just met, he looked back at Mabel.

"Mabel... you could've prevented her death, couldn't you? You just... you killed your own daughter! What is WRONG with you?!" Tears formed at the corner of his eyes. Not only was he the spawn of a demon, but his sister was dead as well. He kept shaking his head, he refused to belive this, it was all some sort of prank...

"Dipper, for god's sake, stop crying. You're not a little boy anymore. Or should I say a little half-demon?" Bill said, grinning maniacally.

"Shut up! SHUT UP!" Dipper covered his ears with his hands. Bill started laughing like a maniac, insanity plastered on his face. Tears rolled down Dipper's face. He tried to stop, to show Bill he wasn't some weak little kid, but his body just wouldn't listen.

Slowly, time around them started again. Wendy and Soos moved again.

"Wh-wha?" Wendy said. The pause had left her and Soos confused and both forgot what they had been doing.

"Why are we in the middle of the forest?" Soos asked. He and Wendy, in some wierd synchronized motion, both saw Mabel at the same time.

"Mabel!" Wendy yelled, running towards her. For some odd reason, the trees didn't attempt to harm Wendy as she kneeled by Mabel. Her expression turned from concern to horror. "MABEL!" she screamed. Soos ran beside her and his face turned a sick green. Wendy put her hands to her face and started sobbing.

Inside the forcefield, Dipper could hear Wendy's agonized screams. He looked up and turned to see her and Soos by his sister. Wendy had gotten some of Mabel's blood on her, but she didn't seem to care. Soos was turned around and Dipper couldn't tell what he was doing.

"You can bring your sister back, you know."

That got Dipper's attention. He got up and ran to Bill, hope in his eyes.

"Ok."

"Ok?"

"I agree to whatever crazy, wacked-up thing you're going to have me do in order to bring Mabel back." Dipper said. He wiped the tears from his face and looked Bill right in the eye. Bill, in return, grinned and snapped his fingers. Two blue, fiery orbs appeared in either of his hands.

"These," Bill said, holding up the orbs. "are you and your sister's powers. I was going to withhold them from you until you were a little older to be positive that your body could hold the stress, but certain predicaments have altered that. I'll return them to you and your sister if in exchange you both agree to listen to me and only me and do whatever I say, which you've already done. As for Mabel... lets just assume she'd say yes."

"But how is this going to bring Mabel back?" Dipper asked.

"When I give you back your powers, they'll infuse with your mortal soul and make it into a demon soul. Demon souls are immortal, and make whatever body they inhabit immortal as well. They can also bring back dead bodies, as long as the body still has a soul. Which it should, unless a soul eater comes along. So basically we're going to ressurect your sister by turning her into a demon. As for you, you're also going to be turned into a full-fledged demon, minus the ressurection part. Unless you die, which may happen." Bill explained. "Ready?"

"Ready for wh- AAAAAA!" Before he could finish his sentence, Bill had thrown the blue fireball at him and his sister. It engulfed them both instantaniously. It felt like Dipper's body was being burned alive. Deep within his chest, the flames seemed to lick at his heart and slowly melt it. His vision was suddenly cut in half as the flames spread their destruction to his left eye. Blood and eye matter ran down his face. He wanted to yell and scream and break his vocal cords in pure, horrid pain, but when he opened his mouth, no sound came out.

As fast as it had come it left. He fell to the ground. Behind him, Mabel had been re-awaken. The flames had burned away what remained of her right eye and all of the branches that had once impaled her. Oddly enough, there were no holes in her clothes or her body, minus her eye. She now layed on the ground. Both of the trees on the twin's clothing had turned a bright yellow, and the white had turned to black like the flames had charred the pure color into something that reflected their souls.

"Welcome to the life of demons, my children."

And with that, Bill disappeared.


	3. We are what we make of Ourselves

The forcefield once surrounding Dipper and Bill disappeared with a bright flash. Wendy ran over to where he lay and tried to shake him back into conciousness.

"Dipper, wake up!" She yelled. No matter what he did, the young boy wouldn't stir. She thought about trying to wake up Mabel, but Wendy wasn't even sure she was still alive. The fire had, odd enough, seemed to heal any injuries she had before, but could it bring her back from the dead?

"Soos, help me put Dipper and Mabel back in the golf cart. We need to bring them back to the Mystery Shack. If there's anyone that knows what's going on or who can help them, its Stan." Wendy said. She picked up Dipper's limp body and carried him back over to the golf cart and laid him down in the back seat. Soos did the same with Mabel. Wendy slid into the front seat and Soos in the back to make sure neither twin fell off. Wendy put the keys into the ignition and started the golf cart. She put her foot on the pedal and drove off, leaving the clearing in the distance.

"S-so what do ya think happened back there? Did it have anything to do with that triangle dude?" Soos asked Wendy nervously.

"I have no idea, but there's some crazy magic behind all of this. That I know for sure. We just need to get them home so Stan can undo whatever happened." That ended the conversation. It was silent for the rest of the ride besides the hum of the cart's engine.

When they finally pulled up to the Mystery Shack around 9 p.m., Wendy ran inside to get Grunkle Stan while Soos stayed with the twins. The shack had just closed and Stan was counting his money earned for the day. Wendy burst through the door and Stan looked up from his stack of green.

"Wendy! Where have you been today! You were supposed to-" He was cut off.

"Yea, yea, I know! But Dipper and Mabel are hurt! Something really bad happened and-"

"I'm sure they're fine. Calm down and put some band-aids on 'em, they'll be fine." Stan said, waving his hand towards her in disregard.

"Stan, you don't understand. I think it had to do with... Bill."

Stan's usual easygoing and comical look fell. He ran past Wendy and out towards the golf cart. He picked up Mabel and looked towards Soos.

"Soos, grab Dipper and follow me. Now." Stan said, urgency underlining his voice. He led the way back into the shack, Wendy and Soos running after him. He stopped in front of the snack machine. His hand shook as he punched in a various set of numbers. The machine slid over to reveal an entryway leading to a set of stairs. Stan, Wendy and Soos hurried down them into the secret basement. When they reached the bottom, Stan layed Mabel down on the floor, and Soos put Dipper beside her.

"Start from the beginning. Tell me exactly what happened. Don't leave out a single detail." Stan said. Wendy looked at Soos, and the duo told Stan everything leaving out nothing.

The further into the story they got, the whiter Stan's face turned. When they finished, he swallowed nervously. He didn't know exactly how to put what had happened into terms that they could comprehend.

"So... are they going to be ok? I-its nothing major, just a few burns, right? Right?!" Wendy said. She choked to get it all out, being on the verge of tears the entire time. Stan had a grim look on his face, and Soos looked like he was going to throw up again.

"Depends on what you mean by 'ok.' They're both going to live... forever, actually. You see, Dipper and Mabel aren't exactly... normal. They're both half demon. Their father withheld their powers from them until now. That blue flame you saw engulf them? That was their mortal soul fusing with their demon soul. This also brought back Mabel, because any creature posessing a demon soul can't die, and when a dead body is given such a soul, it brings the body back from the dead. Anyways, when they wake up, they're going to have major side effects on their body from the recent demon fusion, and it won't be pretty." Stan explained.

"Their father? Who are you... oh, god. Not him. Bill Cipher is their father?!" Wendy exclaimed.

"Their dad is the triangle dude?!" Soos yelled.

"Yea... and their mother-" Stan was cut off by a sudden groan.

"Ouch..." Dipper said softly, sitting up. His head felt like a cinder block had been dropped on it, and there was an intense pressure in his chest. His Beside him, Mabel slowly opened her eye.

"Dipper! Mabel!" Wendy yelled. She ran over to them but stopped short. She had just now noticed the gaping hole where Dipper's left and Mabel's right eye had been. The remaining eye had turned a vague yellow and the pupil was thin and long and went from the top of the eye to the bottom.

"Just like their dad..." Wendy said softly. Dipper turned and looked at her.

"Huh? Wendy? Where are we? What's wrong?" Dipper asked. "Weren't we just in the fore... oh." It suddenly came back to him. All of it. Dragging Mabel, Wendy, and Soos into the forest earlier in the day, finding the two pine trees. Seeing Mabel being impaled, and Bill Cipher. Bill. His father. His eye grew wide again and tears formed once again.

"Bill... no. No no no no no! NO!" Dipper screamed, standing up. He clenched his fists into tight balls. "NO!" Blue lightly outlined his hands. "NO!"

"Dipper, calm down!" Stan yelled. But Dipper couldn't hear through his own screams.

"NO!" His hands were on fire with a bright, blue flame.

"No no no NO NO NO!" His entire body was on fire.

"GAAAAAAH!" His hat blew off and the flames suddenly exploded all around him. They hit Wendy, and she flew back and hit the wall. But not even that stopped Dipper. Mabel slowly came back into conciousness, seemingly not effected by her twin's rampage. She sat up and all at once realized what was happening.

"Dipper, what are you doing?! STOP!" She screamed. He turned to look at his sister. Flames were sprouting from his mouth, his ears, even his eye.

His sense suddenly returned to him. The flames died and Dipper fell to his knees.

"Oh god... oh my god..." He looked at his hands. "I-I'm turning into a monster."


	4. This awful fate we've Met

Wendy was upstairs in the twin's room laying on Mabel's bed. She was knocked unconcious from hitting the wall so hard and hadn't woken the entire night. Dipper, after his rampage, had ran back into the forest. He had come back and fell asleep on the couch in the middle of the night. Mabel slept in her brother's bed, due to the fact that hers was occupied.

In the morning, Mabel, Soos, and Stan were all awake. Mabel, surprisingly, hadn't changed into one of her multicolored sweaters. She wore the same one as the day before, the colors still warped and twisted. She passed by Dipper and stared at him for awhile, remembering what had happened. Despite being a demon, he still had the same serene expression on his face when he slept. Someone like him-no-people like them couldn't be demons. They weren't evil, or satanic, or deranged. They were two, completely ordinary kids just going about their summer like any other. Yet this twisted fate had somehow met them anyway.

She turned away from her sibling and headed out the door. After yesterday, she didn't want to have to talk to anyone before she figured out what she even was. So she decided to head out to the woods where no one could bother her. Mabel walked and walked till she was lost. She pulled herself onto a rock and laid down on it. The morning sun had warmed its hard surface, making it rather pleasant. She closed her eye and started to drift off...

"Hey, shooting star!" A voice suddenly said. Mabel shot up and found herself face to face with Bill. He was grinning and the usual insane look gleamed in his eyes. Mabel scooted away from him and glared.

"What's up? How's being a demon? Isn't it fun?" Bill asked, twirling his iconic black cane around his pointer finger. "Sorry about letting all those branches impale you. I was going to save you, but my hand slipped! Whoops! But I think this really turned out for the better."

"Better? How is this better? How is being a... monster, better?!" Mabel demanded. Her usual optimistic and happy attitude was gone. The demon inside was already warping her.

"There's a lot of reasons! You don't die, you have awesome powers," He said, counting the reasons on his slender fingers as he said them. "did I mention you're immortal? And all it took was your humanity and free will!"

"Wait... what?" Mabel asked nervously. She knew that she was a demon. She could feel it deep within her soul and that it was true. What she didn't know was how she actually got like this, or why.

"Oh yea, I forgot about that. You were out cold-or should I say out dead?- when I was explaining all this to Dippy." He said. Bill then went on to explain to his daughter everything that he had told Dipper. Her face went from angry to surprised to mortified. When the blonde haired man finally finished his explaination, Mabel stood up and looked down solemnly.

"So... you're our dad, huh?" She slowly questioned. She needed to hear the answer, just to make sure she wasn't insane...

"Yep! We share our flesh, blood, and twisted sense of fun and humor!" Bill comically said. He seemed completely unfazed by the girl in front of him.

"And that means I have powers just like yours, right?" She asked.

"Well, you can use magic like me, but you don't have my mental abilities. Pine tree, on the other hand, can't use magic but can know the answer to anything in all of existance in a split second. So yes, in a way you do."

Mabel stuck out her hand, palm up and open. A short dagger enveloped in flame suddenly appeared, and she glared up menacingly at her father.

"You b- ACK!" Before she had the chance to finish, a firm hand hit her head fast as lighting and sent her down. She fell off the rock and landed hard on the left side of her head. She looked up just in time to see the dagger flying at her. It landed next to her, mere centimeters from her ear. A tall silloute suddenly loomed over her, its eye glowing red.

"Don't, EVER, do that again. Or I swear to god I will chop your head off. Being decapitated isn't so fun when you're immortal, remember. You'd lie there for eternity, just a head. You'd have to watch as the rest of your body slowly rots away, rats and wolves and maggots feeding on you. And there wouldn't be a single thing you could do about it." Bill said. He leaned down so his face was right in front of hers. Mabel tried to crawl away, but her body was held down by some unseeable force.

"Let me just cut to the chase. What I came here for was to tell you that you are not to let anyone, even Dipper, see you using your powers. In fact, I want you to act completely normal. Pretend you feel completely fine. If Dipper asks you to use your powers, say that you can't no matter what you try. Also, I want you to come to this spot every day until I say otherwise." Bill leaned up again and backed up a few feet. He snapped his fingers, and just like that, he was gone.

Mabel breathed in relief. She didn't realize that she was holding her breath. She got up and dusted herself off. I guess I'll mark the way back so I can get here tomorrow. She held out her hand again, and the dagger re-appeared in it. She held grabbed it firm and extended out her arm. She started walking back, and each tree she passed she slashed with the dagger. When the shack finally came into view, she made the dagger go back to wherever it came from and thought about when she wasn't a demon. That managed to put a geniune smile on her face as she opened the door and walked inside.


	5. Do you ever stop to Think?

Stan couldn't sleep all night. He tossed and turned, and any time he let himself succumb to the darkness, nightmares invaded his mind. It was always the same. Mabel and Dipper, bloody string wrapping itself around their thin ligaments leading up to old wood. With a jerk of the puppetmaster's hand, they danced back and forth uncontrollably. But they both looked so real, even more so when they lunged for him and stuck a knife in his throat.

At around 6 am, he gave up and got out of bed. Putting on a pair of old slippers, he sneaked into the secret basement to continue his research. The old man was determined to find out some way to return his great niece and nephew back to the way they were before they became demons. He had promised that he would protect them from this. But Bill had burst through his defenses anyway and did this. He caused this mess... and I'm going to get him back for it. But he had no idea how, saying that Bill not only had knowledge of, well, everything, and the ability to use magic, he also had two children with the same powers that were under his complete control. The odds were against him tenfold, but that didn't matter. Stan still had to try.

It was about twelve o'clock when Stan finally pulled himself away from his work. Shuffling his feet, he walked back up the long staircase and out the secret door from behind the snack machine and shut it behind him. He passed Dipper, who was still sleeping on the couch, and...

"Mabel?" He asked, looking at his young niece. She was sitting in the living room playing with Waddles, smiling and laughing like nothing had ever happened. "Why are you so cheerful?"

"Whatya mean, Grunkle Stan? Why wouldn't I be happy? Woop whomp!" She poked her dusty red cheeks with her index fingers. Is this cheerful enough for you, Bill?

Stan rolled his eyes and walked into his room. He changed into his black suit, grabbed his cane and went to stand on the porch of the Mystery Shack. Despite the current circumstances, he still had to open shop, because if he didn't the townsfolk would suspect something was up. Usually Stan wouldn't worry about that, but now that the Society of the Blind Eye had stopped erasing their memories, they might actually be somewhat intellectual.

There was a crowdful of tourists waiting outside. They were looking around, snapping pictures with their cheap cameras and wondering what exactly waited for them in the Mystery Shack. "Ladies and gentlemen, step right up to see bizarre and wondrous creatures of Gravity Falls! Come in, come in, and see what lives amongst these trees." He led the group into the Shack, explaining all of the odd- and fake- creatures one by one. Finally, after answering all of their questions, he let them roam in the gift shop. Stan walked into the bathroom, locked the door and leaned on the sink. He looked at himself in the mirror. How long can I do this? For how long can I put on a brave face and pretend that my great niece and nephew didn't just become demons and try to murder someone?

He walked out of the restroom to see Soos attempting to run the cash register. Soos was freaking out and kept giving the customer the wrong total or pressing the wrong button on the register. Stan sighed and walked over to him.

"Soos, go fix something. I'll run the cash register." He said. Soos sighed in relief, nodded, and ran off.

"Next!" Stan cried between each customer. It took him thirty minutes to check them all out and sort out all their problems, and just that had exhausted him.

The rest of the day was a living nightmare. It was incredibly difficult to manage both waves of incoming tourists and the cash register and any problems or questions they had all by himself. It seemed like they had three times the amount of trouble then they usually did, and no one could ever find their wallets. Their cameras broke dozens of times, holding up the whole tour while they switched to a phone or a backup camera. They kept knocking over, bumping into, and breaking things, and not a single person didn't have a question. By the end of the day, Stan was too tired to do anything but plop down on the small seat in the living room. At least, he would've done that if it weren't for a still sleeping Dipper.

Good God, how much sleep does a kid need? Maybe its because the demon infusion put a big strain on his body... but Mabel doesn't need this much sleep. And she doesn't seem to be acting any different, either. Could it be that Bill decided to give all of the power to Dipper? But why? Stan played with the thought in his mind, but he couldn't make sense of anything. There was always one extra bump on a piece when he tried to put together the puzzle. Finally, he shrugged and headed off to his own bedroom. I just need to go to sleep anyways.

Stan opened the door to his bedroom. He walked in, shut it behind him, and walked over to his bed. He pulled back the white sheets, slid off his shoes, took off his glasses, and slid into the bed. He pulled the covers back over him, laid his head on the pillow, and laid on his back. He closed his eyes, and despite his great fatigue, he couldn't sleep. Suddenly, a bright light flashed in front of Stan's bed, and out from it stepped a shadow of a rather tall man.

"Stan Pines. Nice to see you, not so nice to be you."

"Bill. What do you want? Haven't envoked enough destruction yet?"

"C'mon Stan, you knew this day was coming. You even witnessed their birth. You saw that they were born into this world bloodthirsty demons, just like their father. You saw me take their powers from them so they wouldn't be savages with no hope of ever being civilized. I did what a good father should do!"

"A good father? You're the polar opposite of that. You're the worst father on the face of the Earth." Stan said.

Bill put a hand over his heart and made a dramatic face. "You offend me, Stan! I'm hurt! I did a pretty good job, considering I don't have a physical body. I made surrogate parents for them, let them live normal human lives. I let them be children. Now its time for them to grow up and face who they really are."

"Wait, you created their 'parents'?" Stan asked, confused.

"Yes, I did. Why are you so surprised?"

"Because... don't you need a human to sacrifice to create a human?"

"Yes, you do. Stan, what are you getting at? I still don't see your point."

"Who did you use to make their 'parents?'"

On that, Bill grinned. It was an impossible grin that literally stretched from one ear to the other, and his teeth were showing. His eye grew wide and the pupil seemed to be the size of a crumb.

"I used your brother, of course. Who else?"

Stan's eyes grew wide. He flung himself out of bed and at the demon. Bill simply vanished and appeared behind Stan, who had fell on the floor with a loud thud. Tears flowed in two gentle rivers down the old man's face. He covered his face with his two hands, not wanting to let the demon see him cry.

"This isn't real... he isn't dead... you didn't kill him!"

Bill's grin got a little softer as he floated over to the crying man. He bent down so his face was parallel to Stan's.

"Did you ever stop to think how surreal this all is? That maybe, it really it isn't happening?"

"That maybe its all..."

"One..."

"Big..."

"Dream?


End file.
